This invention relates to an improved kaleidoscope device.
Kaleidoscopes have been popular for many years. Their invention is credited to Sir David Brewster in the Victorian era and generations of children have marvelled at the beautiful images a kaleidoscope can provide.
Traditionally a kaleidoscope consists of a tube containing two or more angularly related rectangular plane mirrors which have contiguous long edges near the axis of the tube. The user looks through an eyepiece at one end of the tube at an objective at its other end and the multiple images of the objective reflected by the mirrors provide a symmetrical image. Typically the objective is loose pieces of brightly coloured stuff, and as the tube is moved these rearrange themselves providing an ever-changing image.
A variation of the kaleidoscope is a so-called teleidoscope in which the viewed objective is not part of the apparatus but one""s surroundings. The surroundings are viewed through a fish-eye lens at the bottom of the mirror tube. This system is imperfect in that a fish-eye lens necessarily distorts the image and moreover the image should be as close as possible to the ends of the mirrors remote from the eye piece to provide the desired symmetry.
The principal object of the invention is to improve upon prior art proposals and more specifically to improve upon the quality of kaleidoscopic images. The subject of this image may be the kaleidoscope user""s surroundings, or in a favoured embodiment of the invention it may be the surface of a bubble.
These and other objects of the invention are achieved in that the objective end of the kaleidoscope is touching a rear projection screen onto which any chosen image may be back-projected.
Preferably a lens or lens system is employed to focus an image onto the screen and the object or objects providing the image is preferably illuminated by a source of light.